Wednesday, December 7, 2011 trust me, i'm a follower
On Friday I hosted my first unconference on behalf of the Scottish Improvement Service. The theme was social media in the Scottish public sector and you can check out #smuncon if you like.
I knew the discussions would be lively and I knew I’d learn a lot. What always amazes me though is the innovation going on in the public sector – Everyone assumes that the private sector drives innovation and that wherever they lead we will follow but I reckon they could learn a thing or two.
What we’re not good at, and this could be a Scottish Calvinist trait, is shouting about how good we are so I thought I’d have a bit of a shout out here on everyone’s behalf.
During the conference we covered all the usual topics – which social media channels for which job, community engagement, security issues, publishing and monitoring tools, social media use in emergencies, QR codes and location tools etc.
However the line that blew me away came from the Gordon Scobbie, the Deputy Chief Constable from Tayside Police @DCCTayside. He encourages his staff to use social media, even bobbies tweet on the beat!
“I trust my staff with a baton. I trust them to remove your liberty. Why wouldn’t I trust them with a Twitter account?”
When I tweeted this line after he said it @jonbolton came straight back with “We trust social workers with care & protection of most vulnerable people. We need to trust them with socialmedia”. We’d obviously hit on something.
Trust has to go hand-in-hand with great training but why are managers so reluctant to let staff share their day? Some council jobs lend themselves perfectly to Twitter – environmental health, trading standards, animal welfare. Put the right person on Twitter and you have an ambassador for the organisation.
Who’s the right person? Usually the one who approaches you, showing an interest. Usually the one who speaks animatedly at team meetings. Usually the one who can write like they speak. Usually the one with a bit of ooomph. Usually the one who obviously enjoys their job.
Social media isn’t rocket science and neither is trust. As a manager you shouldn’t have to take a gamble, you should know without a doubt who is sociable enough for social media and if that means learning how to do it yourself you should. You never know – maybe you’re the right person for the job.
Carolyne blogs at http://carolynemitchell.wordpress.com/
Twitter @Cal444
Reader Comments (3)
As a teacher - someone who teaches... facilitates learning etc, I feel it is an insult that I am not allowed to use social media to teach children - nor teach children HOW to use social media safely by showing them. Local authority rules on this really need urgently reviewed. It's like they think if they hide it away from the learning process, it will go away. countries across the world are encouraging "BYOD" - Bring Your Own Device, to facilitate learning via text, twitter, facebook, email etc etc. Scotland fears pupils taking photos or videos of teachers... or that these teachers who are alone with your children all day may take photos of your children on their devices. Insulting and luddite.
There have to be guidelines. Tweets must be in accordance with legislation (such as the Data Protection Act and the Official Secrets Act) and must not prejudice anything yet to go to trial or disclose intelligence.
Provided that officers tweet within these parameters then I'm all for officers tweeting about the work that they do in the communities that they patrol. Police officers should be proud of the work that they do and sharing it with the public is a great idea.
Hi - Coming to your post late, but just wondered whether there were any reps from the NHS at this event and what their reaction was to what @DCCTayside said.